Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Main idea satirizes US government around the beginning of cold war with USSR. Apparently, the security excuses got to crazy limits - enough to bug the author, in any case. But theme seems to be so universal; readers everywhere & at all times should find something familiar. And it's an interesting colorful story even without its political overtones.

Story summary.

"Brooklyn Project" is on the lines of "Manhattan Project" - developing a "chronar", a kind of time travel device, in extreme secrecy. It works as a see-saw that moves through time - something you want to send in one time direction, & another nearby counterweight that goes in the other direction for balance. Government thinks it's the ultimate weapon, since you could put one near an enemy target & move it in some time direction to ensure the whole enemy city or country moves through time in a different direction!!!

At the heart of the story is a cocky but unnamed government official, "the acting secretary to the executive assistant on press relations", whose attitude symbolizes that of the government. He is briefing a group of a dozen journalists about an experiment about to be conducted: a recording device will be sent 4 billion years into the past, & a corresponding counterweight will go appropriate distance in future. Two will see-saw, damping half the time-distance every iteration. At each stage, the device will capture vital data about the earlier earth.

Only, the minor differences the visit makes to a few molecules in these distant times begins to have crazy butterfly effects in our time. But only reader will notice that; government official is as arrogant as in the beginning since no one living can notice the difference...

See also.

Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" (1952): Very similar plot idea - minor past modification by time travelers changes now noticeably. This Bradbury story is probably far more widely read then Tenn's; but to me at least, it reads like an amateur piece (yes, I know saying this is sacrilege to some) compared to Tenn's classic. Also, Tenn's came first.

A E van Vogt's "Seesaw" (1941): The idea of a sort of see-saw in time travel - two counter-masses traveling simultaneous in opposite time-directions - is also found in this earlier story of Van Vogt.

Tenn is a professed fan of Van Vogt - so idea might have been consciously borrowed.

This Van Vogt story, incidentally, is the first of a series of variations on the same idea that probably includes a novel too. Best known titles of the series are a short story (+ novel pair?) called "The Weapon Shop" aka "The Weapon Shops of Isher". In my book, "Seesaw" is a more interesting story, even if less well known. Possibly because I've little taste for feudal societies, something the "The Weapon Shop" features but the original doesn't.